Editor,
I am appalled about how many people on scholarships, such as the Pell Grant and the Lottery Scholarship, are using this money (intended for school) for everything else not related to school. I was in a class this morning and overheard some students talking about how they used the majority of their scholarships for school and books. At first, I was relieved, until they started talking about the money they had left over, which for some of them was over $3,000. So they went and bought alcohol, drugs (I am not kidding about this one), games for Xbox/PS3 and other stuff that isn’t remotely related to school or living expenses. Does the school do anything to monitor where this money is going that they are basically throwing at college students?
I have to hold down two jobs to pay for tuition, books, food, rent and everything else. Sometimes I only get 15 hours a week, which with today’s prices on food and rent, I barely make ends meet.
So it greatly upsets me when I hear that scholarships that I have applied for and been turned down on end up going to a student to use for his/her own luxuries. While I do realize that I can apply for student loans like most in my position, I wonder where the line is drawn between giving money to students for college expenses and giving money to students for whatever they desire to spend it on.
I know that a lot of students could have used that extra $3,000 to pay for their own tuition or books. What does UNM, or the government for that matter, do to control this wild spending of scholarship money? I am pretty sure when each of the scholarship founders created these scholarships, they didn’t have alcohol, drugs, games, $900 bicycles or $1,200 televisions on their minds.
Elyse Duran
UNM student
